Percussion instruments are practically as old as mankind; and may be nothing more than two pieces of wood that are struck together to produce sound such as, for example, the clave. Other percussion instruments are sounded by striking a sound-producing apparatus (e.g., a drumhead, for example) with a striker element (e.g., a drumstick). Other percussion instruments effect a sound when shaken, such as, for example, a tambourine, or when a striker element is drawn across a surface provided with serrations. The Latin American guiro is an example of the latter.
Further, it is known to combine certain percussion instruments in one; see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,566,737 and 2,472,408. Most instruments have generally been limited in the sounds they were capable of producing, such as a shaker with jingles or a castanet with jingles. Others have been mere aggregations of percussion-type devices brought together with no thought or design for producing a serious, unified musical percussion instrument capable of selectively producing a variety of sounds. A number of devices stuck on a pole is one example. The prior art combinations have often been rather clumsy affairs fatiguing the musician who may have been required to use them for an extended period. Examples of such prior art musical devices can be found in U.S Pat. Nos. 3,566,737 and 3,704,340.